Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.

If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!

I am considering taking Aikido, but I am unsure as to whether it would actually help me if someone where to attack me. Has Aikido ever helped you in a real fight?

It could help you not get in a fight...

And if there is a scuffle, it will give you other options besides popping someone in the face.
(Speaking from experience... although the real solution goes back to the above - rooting out what caused the scuffle to begin with, and thus not having a confrontation.)

Avoiding confrontations isn't much of an option, unfortunately. I'm just wondering if someone where to try and punch me would Aikido actually work in avoiding the punch and then making a escape. One of my friends used to take Aikido and said that he doesn't think it would help any in a everyday fight but then again he's pretty aggressive where as I just don't want to be beaten up.

Well, simply the fact that your friend uses the term "everyday fights" should be clue number one. From my training over the past 5 and a half years, I would say Aikdio is not something to bring into a ring- the principles would certainly help, but the attitude is completely different.

Aikido is a practical self defense, that being said, in my own judgement, it is probably harder to learn that other things that are just as practical from a "street" perspective. Don't expect to learn aikido over night. It does take some dedication.

The bottom line though, is simply that you'll have to try it and see if it is for you. Additionally, every teacher is a little different, so it's more important to find something you enjoy doing.

Go drive down I-40 one exit (west) and watch Steve Kauffman at Open Sky Aikikai (Hillsborough). He has a pretty practical style. You will have to get off the exit. and drive until you cross under I-85 (Hillsborough). Its just past the underpass behind the Wendy's. I've taken aikido for 14 years and have seen Kaufman senesi's aikido numerous times. I think that observing several dojo would help answer your questions. Chris Crandall over in Raliegh has a very strong style also but I'm pretty sure Kaufman is closer to you.

Avoiding confrontations isn't much of an option, unfortunately. I'm just wondering if someone where to try and punch me would Aikido actually work in avoiding the punch and then making a escape. One of my friends used to take Aikido and said that he doesn't think it would help any in a everyday fight but then again he's pretty aggressive where as I just don't want to be beaten up.

Actually, as you get older, and time passes by, you may begin to understand past the words to where they are pointing and that indeed...much of what confrontations you have, could have been avoided.

Why does someone want to punch you? etc.

Again, my story was pretty clear example of what I mean.

Two people, defending their position of what is 'right', and they get in a scuffle after one attacks the other.

I was the one attacked by some joint manipulation tactic and thrown to the floor... in-between there I tried to hold him in a headlock until he calmed down so he would not attack me further. (could have gone wild on his face.)

But being exhausted I was thrown, and he came at me, and I simply kicked him in the face, and then bounced up and popped him in the nose...at which point, reality sunk in, and he calmed down.

Had I known Aikido, I would have been able to not exert as much energy in the headlock when trying to keep him off me...as it was not my intent to beat him and cause blood to gush out his nose.

Sankyo, and other movements come to mind now.

But, as I 'grow', I now realize that there is no need to always try to prove a point, nor can you do so when the other person is turning red from rage because 'they are right'.

So, for me, at least, in looking back, the fight could have stopped by simply allowing the other person to be, as it were - or rather not feel the need to verbally respond to someones egoic story.

Now, this may be different then what your thinking, but interestingly enough, the very root of why these things start, typically go back to the inner state of both people.

Accidents are more likely, as Eckhart Tolle puts it, when both peoples pain bodies are activated.

I know, this doesnt sound exciting, etc. Beating someone without fighting doesnt feed the egos sense of self at all. - at one stage in life, its about who is the tough guy...but all things have a time and a place, and the journey can only be walked by you.

Peace

dAlen

p.s.

Aikido is what you make it - you can have heavy atemi, (punching), or make it totally spiritual.
Its a shell that you fill with what you want...the basic structure is there to make of it what you will, like a bunch of legos. I know many dont realize this, as other arts are more direct...its just 'beat' someone.

But Aikido, in a way, more represents life, and the choices you have.
As my instructor and senior students would say...'possibilities'.

Avoiding confrontations isn't much of an option, unfortunately. I'm just wondering if someone where to try and punch me would Aikido actually work in avoiding the punch and then making a escape. One of my friends used to take Aikido and said that he doesn't think it would help any in a everyday fight but then again he's pretty aggressive where as I just don't want to be beaten up.

I think aikido does a great job in teaching you how to disengage from an attack. One thing that I'm really liking about my aikido training is how it has sharpened my awareness of the (for lack of a better term) moments of opportunity that happen in the course of an attack: here's the point where you have the option to take the opponent's balance, here's the point where you have the opportunity to counterattack, here's when you can disengage, etc. I got this before from studying jodo, which is all about such moments, but aikido was the first style where I really felt that emphasis in empty-hand training. All that is probably babble to you, though. The short answer is yes, but it's not a skill you pick up overnight.

A lot depends, too, on why avoiding confrontations isn't much of an option. If you work in law enforcement or corrections, that's definitely true, but for most other situations, I wonder about the use of the phrase "everyday fight". What's the situation that causes people to take a swing at you on an everyday basis?

Oh hell yes, I have learned to smile at my wife when she is on a rant and not listed to a word she says. She can't draw me into a fight. I am good!!! After 42 years she don't even try now but it took me about that long to master that part of Aikido. :-)

I am considering taking Aikido, but I am unsure as to whether it would actually help me if someone where to attack me. Has Aikido ever helped you in a real fight?

Hello Alex,

A lot of the replies you got don't seem to answer your question. Maybe people are too humble to tell you about the times they disembowelled attackers with their own knives? I would definitely agree with posts saying that aikido might help you avoid fights in the first place, but you seem to be asking specifically about scenarios where there is no option.

I'm afraid I am also keeping schtum about my shady antics, for if I told you what I've done… why I'd have to kill you. No seriously, I realise you would probably like details of actual confrontations but it might be better if you just go and try Aikido for yourself. After all, you can't believe everything you read. The proof is in the pummelling! My advice is to find a dojo that seems to offer what you are looking for and take it from there.

Avoiding confrontations isn't much of an option, unfortunately. I'm just wondering if someone where to try and punch me would Aikido actually work in avoiding the punch and then making a escape. One of my friends used to take Aikido and said that he doesn't think it would help any in a everyday fight but then again he's pretty aggressive where as I just don't want to be beaten up.

Just curious but why is avoiding confrontations not much of an option? Are you a bouncer, cop, something similar, or just someone who wants to fight?

I put my right foot in, I put my left foot out, I do the Aikipokey and throw you all about

Avoiding confrontations isn't much of an option, unfortunately. I'm just wondering if someone where to try and punch me would Aikido actually work in avoiding the punch and then making a escape. One of my friends used to take Aikido and said that he doesn't think it would help any in a everyday fight but then again he's pretty aggressive where as I just don't want to be beaten up.

Aikido is very effective. But, at the same time i say this, i do know that there are very many "dojo's" out there that teach sub-par Aikido, or Aikido not geared towards combat.
So, yes Aikido works fantastically for self-defense, but you must find the right place to study.
AND STICK WITH IT.
Aikido is a very long and difficult journey. If you dont have the heart to learn more than "punch, kick, take-down, choke" (as in some other MA i could mention.... cough... MMA.... cough) then dont bother, you must be willing to put the time into Aikido for it to work for you.

-morgan

"When you bow deeply to the universe, it bows back; when you call out the name of God, it echoes inside you." - O' sensei